Definitions for chunking

This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word chunking

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:(0.00 / 0 votes)

unitization, unitisation, chunking(noun)

(psychology) the configuration of smaller units of information into large coordinated units

WiktionaryRate this definition:(0.00 / 0 votes)

chunking(Noun)

A strategy for making more efficient use of short-term memory by recoding information.

chunking(Noun)

A method of presenting information which splits concepts into small pieces or "chunks" of information to make reading and understanding faster and easier, using such methods as bulleted lists, short subheadings, or short sentences with one or two ideas per sentence.

chunking(Noun)

The process of reducing something to short, thick pieces of its former self, usually using a hammer or a crowbar.

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Chunking

Chunking, in psychology, is a phenomenon whereby individuals group responses when performing a memory task. Tests where individuals can demonstrate "chunking" commonly include serial and free recall tasks. All three tasks require the individual to reproduce items that he or she had previously been instructed to study. Test items generally include words, syllables, digits/numbers, or lists of letters. Presumably, individuals that exhibit the "chunking" process in their responses are forming clusters of responses based on the items' semantic relatedness or perceptual features. The chunks are often meaningful to the participant. It is believed that the assimilation of different items according to their properties occurs due to individuals creating higher order cognitive representations of the items on the list that are more easily remembered as a group than as individual items, themselves. Representations of these groupings are highly subjective, as they depend critically on the individual's perception of the features of the items and the individual’s semantic network. The size of the chunks generally range anywhere from two to six items, but differs based on language and culture. For example, there is evidence that Chinese speaking students are more easily able to learn basic math than English speaking ones because the number words are briefer, and more consistent with base-10. "Chunking" maintains a number of characteristics when observed in recall tasks.